Blistering Heat

This time, it's not for dramatic effect, folks. There are real blisters involved. But first of all I want to say that I've learned firsthand that it is possible to run in 90-degree heat. A dry heat, anyway- it's only 10% humidity today, so maybe that's how I survived. I decided this afternoon at work, that I would at least try to run outside, and see how long I could last. I'll admit, I've been sort of chicken. Well, to my credit, I just figured it would be a waste of time. That I could only make it 5-10 minutes before I collapsed and had to crawl back home. But there was a nice wind blowing, that actually made it quite tolerable. I also put a wet bandana (rolled up) under my visor, so maybe that helped, too.

Anyway, for the details of my run. I did my 2-lap warm-up (.44 mi at 5:40), then started running. I felt like I was going sooo slow, plus the wind was blowing against me half of the time, but according to my time, my pace wasn't too bad. In fact, I clocked my first mile (post warm-up) at 15:05, so subtracting the warm-up makes 9:25!! And I kept running to continue mile 2. And then you'll never believe what happened as I got closer to finishing mile 2. Yeah, like Pavlov's dog, the potty response kicked in. But this time, I told myself that I couldn't stop (yet) because I wanted to see how far I could keep running past the 2 miles. I ended up going 2.36 miles (post warm-up) before I took a walk break (and I made it until I got home for the potty break). Yippee! I love to see progress in the numbers. So I walked briskly for a lap, then kept running to see what my 5k time would be. And you'll never believe it; at 3.12 miles (I looked down at the iPod a little bit too late) I was at 36:13, which makes 30:35 after the warm-up. That sub-30:00 5k is so close I can taste it. And that was in mega heat with the wind blowing. At the 4-mile mark my time was 40:54, so that means my pace was 10:13.5 per mile including my warm-up! The total run with cool-down was 4.44 miles in 46:46, for a 10:30 pace overall. Not too shabby for a girl who's scared to run in the heat. Plus I got a congrats from my peep Tiger Woods for my fastest mile so far. Thanks Tiger, and good luck with your knee surgery.

Okay, getting back to the blisters. I mentioned that I got a little sunburned last Saturday at the waterpark. I swear, normally I am the sunscreen queen, and I'm trying to keep everyone else protected, too. But somehow I wasn't diligent enough, and I'm paying the price. When I got home from running, I went to take off my tank top, and there were mass water blisters on my shoulders. Then I looked down, and realized they were all over my stomach, too. So I looked in the mirror, and they're all over my back. Eeeewwww. Hubby says that it happened to him back when he was roofing down in Vegas, and he got burned. But to me, blister means bad sun-burn (2nd degree), which means skin damage. Yikes! But you'd be proud, because I did put sunscreen on before I went running today. = )

Well, I just thought I'd check in, and say that I'm back in the running game, and plugging along toward my June goal of 84 miles (as you can see by my tracking widget, I'm a little behind- but my intention was to gradually run farther and farther on Saturdays, so hopefully that will make up for it).